Father
by Lagrenn
Summary: Dirk had found Lloyd when he was only a 3 year old... his story begins here. [POSSIBLE SPOILERS] [ON HIATUS]
1. Age 3, Pride

Disclaimer: Namco owns ToS and its content. I own nothing.

AN: Sort of a tribute to a certain Lloyd-loving webmistress since she suggested I write a fanfiction on him. Anyhow, you'll find that a majority of this fanfiction will be completely fictional (like how fanfics are meant to be) since there's practically no background information to this. So if you see things a bit off from the game, you'll know why, haha.

* * *

"There now, stop crying, young lad." Dirk sighed, attempting to approach the brown-haired toddler that scrambled away each time he took a step. His arms were open, trying to grab at the child and comfort him. Sadly, it hadn't been working for the last three days he had the child with him. 

"Waaah!" And it still apparently was not going to work. The child only began to cry out louder, yelling out words of "momma" and "pappa" as best as he could with hope that his parents would come for him. Dirk, however, was only filled with sympathy everytime the toddler called out the two names; the child had lost both parents at the young age of three, with no idea of the terrible fate that had befallen them.

Taking one more step in attempt to have at the child, Dirk lowered his arms. From all the child's shrieking, it was obvious he was terrified. Not only was Dirk a complete stranger, but with his arms spread wide for hugging most likely made him look like a giant, after the toddler to eat or something of the sort. Nothing he did helped. Dirk had tried to catch him--the child had incredible speed for one of his age--but it had only ended with failure.. It was obvious from all the experiences of that that the child had still not warmed up to him... then again, most children tended to be surprised when they saw a dwarf for the first times in their lives, for although Dirk was not vertically gifted he was instead presented with a rather intimidating look. Dirk could easily frighten a child twice as big as him, sadly.

However, that one step he had taken was futile. The toddler only began to scream louder and run off while attemping to climb up the stairs... only to fail and bawl even louder. Dirk sighed once more, something he wasn't quite used to, and went over to pick up the child who was now too busy with wiping away the tears that streamed down his cheeks. This boy had pride and wanted to desperately keep it intact. And already only at the age of three he was determind to have a good look on the outside...

"Quiet now, lad." Dirk whispered in his usual rumbly voice, thinking of ways to call the child by his given name.

* * *

_"What happened here?" Dirk muttered to himself, shocked by the bloody scene._

_Before him was some sort of animal that strongly resembled a dog. The creature was lying on its side with a large gash on the left of his body, red liquid oozing itself out. Not too far off from the "dog" was a woman, covered in her own blood, lying face down on the solid ground. There was a wailing coming from her direction, but it sounded far too childish to be coming from the woman herself. Dirk quickly scrambled over to the woman in hopes that she was still alive. Thankfully, she was... but only by a bit._

_"What happened?" The dwarf repeated as he flipped the woman over to find a large gash across her chest. That had horrified him although what shocked Dirk more was that a bundle was being tightly held by her... a child._

_The woman coughed up some of the blood in her mouth, wheezing, "Please... my child... Lloyd... please, take care of him..." She managed, literally shoving the bundle forcefully at Dirk as he looked down at the woman who looked young. Far too young to the point it would've been a pity for her to die._

_"Your name...?" He finally managed as he registered in his mind that she would not live. Not with such a wound._

_She smiled weakly, happy to see that her child would live on with a father figure, "... Anna..." Then her eyes slowly closed, the lids over it lightly._

_Anna had died right then and there. Lloyd had suddenly bawled louder at that moment._

* * *

As Dirk was lost in thought, he had not realized that Lloyd's crying had come to a halt. Taking advantage of Dirk's unawareness, Lloyd poked his nose, squealing with amusement as Dirk suddenly snapped back into reality. Eyebrow raised, the dwarf looked down at the child, slightly frowning when he heard a rumbling noise coming from Lloyd's stomach. He plopped Lloyd down onto a small chair and took out a piece of bread from a shelf that stored all of the food. Handing it to the toddler, he expected the child to simply take it and start chewing. To his surprise, however, Lloyd snatched the piece of bread with incredible speed and began to gobble down the bread. In a record time, the bread was no more of this world. 

"Quite the eater, aren't you?" Dirk exclaimed with his heavy accent, looking down at the child who was now laughing happily for being fed a rather large piece of bread. He suddenly frowned after clearly observing Lloyd. Having avoiding the dwarf for three days in total, the child had had no food or bathes during that time span. No wonder the child was bawling so loudly; it was not quite afraid of him... he was just hungry but didn't want to go near Dirk.

After a moment of silence, Dirk spoke of his current thoughts, "Let's get you cleaned up and fed properly... Lloyd." Finally, he had said his name. After three days, he finally said the name he had wanted to from the beginning he had learned it, He was now the father of his child, and he would have to get used to it.

A father... the thought that Dirk smile, for he had never exactly had a family... no siblings, and both mother and father gone. He would make sure that he would be a good role-model for Lloyd. He would comfort him whenever he was troubled, and feed him whenever the child was hungry. Dirk would see to it that Lloyd grew up to be a successful and happy man.

There was a sudden whimper from outside. Ah, Dirk had forgotten all about it.

"And you'll be fed too, Noishe." He finished.

* * *

AN: Zomg, that was a short prologue. This'll most likely go up to Lloyd's 17th birthday, so there'll be a total of 17 chapters at the minimum. I might add in extra stuff in for the heck of it... next chapter will come out in two weeks: January 30. I'm doing this bi-weekly... so if you liked the beginning for some reason, leave a review. I'll try to make the future chapters longer and much better; I really had no idea how to start this off, so it's horrible. Bleh! 


	2. Age 4, Taboo

Disclaimer: Namco owns ToS and its content. I own nothing.

AN: As many of you will notice from my other fanfics, I rarely input dialogues... I need to start doing that, haha. This chapter tremendously lacks dialogue, but I'll be sure to add in more next time. Also, I know I updated earlier than the promised date, but it's because I'm not sure if I'll have time to upload this chapter around the time I've told all of you. So this chapter came out early Future chapters will come on the scheduled time though, from now on. However, there would be some exceptions from to time. Sooo... enjoy this chappie of age 4 of Lloyd (beware, I have started this chapter very crappy-ishly...)!

* * *

It had been a year since Dirk had taken in Lloyd as his dear son. Throughout the months that had passed, the dwarf had learned that the 4 year-old boy loved to eat and looked for some kind of food almost every two hours. He was a hungry child, but Dirk was nonetheless happy to keep on obliging and giving Lloyd the bread he particularly favored among the stock he had. It was worthwhile in giving him so much food in one day for the bright and innocent smile Dirk received whenever Lloyd ate was more than enough for a gratitude--the dwarf found it... adorable. Unfortunately, sometimes he grabbed for anything nearby and take a bite of it: a piece of wood, cloth, and the handle of a pickaxe... although Dirk had stopped Lloyd just in time from chewing on the blades of the latter with a horrified look. 

Not only that, Dirk had found out that his son was a very artistic boy. When Dirk had first gotten him a piece of paper and pencil to keep him occupied while the dwarf worked on his blacksmithery, Lloyd had drawn what looked like Noishe... a blob of green and white (the sheet he had given Lloyd was brown, oddly). Lloyd had included in three stick figures, though, which was most likely his parents and himself. Dirk was rather down after seeing the drawing, but nonetheless acted casually to show Lloyd that nothing was wrong, although the fact that the child had lost his parents at such an early age still bothered him.

Nowadays, all that every happened was Lloyd eating, sleeping, or doing something artistic--mainly "doodling"--to keep himself busy. Even though it had only been a year, the child had already noticed the importance of Dirk's concentration, and that he needed to have the time to himself. Although at times, he could not help but tug at his sleeves, asking where all the food had went when Lloyd had been the one to eat it all.

As of that very moment, Lloyd was drawing. A brown crayon held in his right hand sloppily with a black one on the other, he was lying down on the floor with his stomach on the ground. Lloyd's legs were lifted up, swishing back and forth as the boy began to produce the image in his mind. Holding the paper down with his elbows--which he found rather uncomfortable, but decided to stick with anyway--he began to draw lines and circles conjoined as if he was attempting to create something... or someone. Lloyd knew exactly what he was going to draw, but had suddenly lost the image in mind. Picking up all the crayons and the paper, Lloyd marched downstairs where Dirk was currently walking, slowly tip toeing to the table while being satisfied by the fact that the dwarf was so concentrated on his work that he did not notice him. Sitting quietly on the chair after finally managing to get on with some difficulty, Lloyd set the materials down on the miniature table Dirk had created for him. As he continued onto his work of art, Lloyd occasionally looked over at Dirk, crayons at the tip of his chin as if he was in deep thought.

It was after the tenth time Lloyd had looked over at Dirk that the dwarf turned around to get something. When Dirk had turned, however, he almost jumped back in surprise, "When did you get here, Lloyd?" He questioned, hoping that his tone wasn't cracking or anything of the sort from such a fright of seeing a child where he wasn't the last time he had looked. However, when his eyes went down to the piece of paper Lloyd was drawing on, he allowed his curiosity to continue on, "And what might you be drawing?"

Lloyd shook his head, "N... no." He said rather nervously, laying his arms down over the paper, crayons still clutched tightly in his hands.

"Come now, why don't you show you father?" Dirk insisted, taking a couple of steps towards the child, who suddenly grabbed paper and jumped out of the chair with his crayons.

"No!" Lloyd shouted in a teasing tone for a child of four, giggling as he dashed up to the second story of the house--his room.

Slightly confused, Dirk cocked his head sideways. After a moment of silence, he shrugged the event that had just occured off, and resumed in his work after retrieving the needed materials from a cabinet. He was quite oblivious to what Lloyd was doing... then again, he had never had any experience with children. That had been a curse for the dwarf; since he had never known how to care for children, he didn't know what to do with Lloyd at first. After one year, however, he had gotten used to it and was hoping that he could improve on being a father over the years. Dirk wanted Lloyd to grow to be a strong young man, filled with the pride he had shown when he was three by refusing to cry. That had been a moment he had never forgotten...

In the meanwhile, Lloyd was still giggling uncontrollably in his room, buried under the sheets of his bed. He soon flung the blankets aside as he sprawled across the bed, forming a star shape as he stared up at the ceiling. When he had gotten to his room, Lloyd shoved the crayons and paper into his drawer, thinking that Dirk would never look there. Sadly, Dirk always cleaned them every week or so, but Lloyd had no idea of that since he always did them in the night. When his giggling had ceased after a couple of seconds, Lloyd was completely still for a long time before he suddenly nuzzled against the pillow, tired from all the effort he had put into his artwork. Closing his eyes lightly, Lloyd was about to fall alseep when--

"... Dinner." Lloyd's eyes snapped open, and he got out of the bed and headed towards his destination: downstairs.

Dirk had finished work just a moment ago, and Lloyd was able to tell from all the work materials currently being put away. This time, the dwarf had noticed him since Lloyd had put in no effort of sneaking towards him. When he saw a light frown on Lloyd's face, concern suddenly broke through. When Lloyd had reached him, all he did was simply tug on his sleeve, causing the dwarf to bend down to hear what the boy had to say. Lloyd's words came rushing into Dirk's ear as he realized what he had forgotten to do.

"Dinner, Dad." He had whispered.

The dwarf had only smiled, mentally kicking himself for forgetting about dinner. Holding back a sigh, Dirk quickly smiled while trying to cover up his shame, and headed for the cabinet. Taking out some bread, meat, and corn, Dirk laid them all out on a plate after heating them up with the fire as Lloyd watched in awe. No matter how many times Lloyd saw the plate being held over the fire, he was intrigued. When the food had all been heated up and set, Dirk grabbed some miniature utensils for Lloyd as he handed them to the child. Shortly after, he dashed towards another storage where all the drinks were kept. Taking out a bottle of milk, he quickly went back to where Lloyd was sitting by his miniature table, handing it to the child after taking the lid off. Lloyd took the bottle with a short gratitude as he began to devour the food before him in record time. Dirk always found Lloyd's way of eating fast quite amusing.

"Slow down while eating, Lloyd! You'll start choking." Dirk insisted, holding back a chuckle from how Lloyd was putting up a show on how he ate.

As Lloyd was occupied was eating, Dirk looked out through the small window of the house. It was quite dark... He had started working on his smithery during noon, and it had only seemed as if an hour or two had passed... however, much more time had passed. Apparently, Lloyd had been napping and drawing all day long while sneaking some food out of the cabinet. Although he occasionally snacked on the stock, Lloyd always ate his meals with Dirk whenever the two were together and had time for each other. This was mainly because Dirk often introduced to Lloyd new food he had never had before about every week or two, and he usually enjoyed them all. However, there was that one time Dirk had given him a tomatoe... oh how he loathed it. Just the mere thought terrified Lloyd, and whenever the red vegetable's name was even mentioned, he ran off. He had given the tomatoe its own nickname with a word he had recently learned... "Taboo".

After Lloyd had finished his meal, he was sent to bed even though he wanted to stay up longer for some reason that Dirk did not know of. The child was only of the age of four yet he was hiding so many things from the dwarf already. And he never revealed them either.

_Even though children had their own secrets, this is ridiculous_, Dirk thought, shaking his head slightly as he cleaned up the plate and utensils. It was already clean enough from Lloyd eating every single bits and pieces of the food, but it had to be washed nonetheless.

---

By the time Dirk had cleaned the eating utensils as well as his own equipments for smithery it was already very late at night. The moon shined brightly, its light forcing its way through the windows as it lighted up the room. It was with no doubt that Lloyd's room was the same, since it had an open door where it led to the child's own personal balcony--although Dirk had covered up the spaces of the rails of it to ensure that Lloyd did not fall through--so that he may have some time to himself, even though he was still so young.

"... Time to go check on Lloyd," he began to mutter to himself, "and clean his drawer." Little did he know, Lloyd had had something hidden in there that he had refused to show him before...

When Dirk had quietly crept into Lloyd's room, the four year-old was sound asleep, the sheets tossed aside rather unceremoniously to the ground. Shaking his head while holding back a sigh, the dwarf went over to the spot on the ground where the sheets have been thrown and carefully laid it on Lloyd, who graciously accepted it by tugging it with his hand. A faint smile appeared on the boy's face, and Dirk's eyes softened at the sight. Lloyd was certainly adorable whenever he took such action without even realizing it...

Turning his attention back to the second part of his duty, Dirk approached the drawer to clean since Lloyd often kept it cramped and messy. When he opened it, Dirk frowned. There was the piece of paper Lloyd had been hiding from him... curiosity took its toll, and the dwarf picked up the paper and took a look at it. A smile tugged at his face, and he could not help do so. It was a drawing of him. Although it was pretty crude, it was rather well done for a young child... Dirk suddenly felt a rush of happiness from seeing that Lloyd had been taking all of his time that day just to draw his "father". To Dirk, it meant that he had been "accepted" by the child as a father figure...

However, that smile quickly disappeared as Dirk moaned silently. The rest of Lloyd's drawer was a complete mess. How the child was able to keep so many belongings in there often amazed Dirk... Keeping in mind that it had to be done, Dirk began to clean the drawer quietly as to not wake Lloyd. It certainly was going to be a long night. But in the end, when he had finished, Dirk felt a surge of satisfaction as he realized the "nightmare" was over. Then after streching his arms, the dwarf headed for the mattress that was on the ground beside Lloyd's bed, lying down upon it. Ever since he had taken in Lloyd, Dirk had given him the bed while he took the liberty of resting on the mattress. At least it was still in good condition. From being so tired, however, Dirk fell asleep without having any time to reflect on his long day...

---

"... t... ad. d... ad... Dad!"

Dirk launched up from his mattress in complete surprise, his heart skipping a beat from the sudden childish voice. Looking around, he spotted Lloyd, who was circling him energetically, an eager look plastered on his usually happy face. The dwarf almost raised a brow but decided not to as the boy finished up what he had been trying to say while Dirk had still been asleep.

"Breakfast, Dad!" Dirk checked the time to see how late it was in the morning.

He groaned inwardly. It wasn't late in the morning... it was painfully early.

* * *

AN: ... This chapter took longer than expected. I seriously don't know how Dirk's really portrayed, so I had trouble writing up what he's like. Lloyd, on the other hand, was somewhat difficult to keep intact on some points, but was overally easy to make sure I didn't go overboard with the OOCness. But anyways, if you liked this, review! Next chapter, age 5, will be up on February 7! 


	3. Age 5, Stars

Disclaimer: Namco owns ToS and its contents. I own nothing.

AN: Okay, age 5 is here. Yeah, I've done short chapters so far, but please deal with me as I am really busy with my social life... I'll probably make the future chapters longer since Lloyd is growing up and I'll be able to portray him better. So now you can expect a bit long chapters around age 13 or so... until then, they'll be quite brief, sadly.

* * *

"Breakfast, Lloyd!" Dirk called, hoping that the child would get up without the dwarf having to march up the stairs to unceremoniously drag Lloyd down and wake him up. 

Sadly, such wish was a mere dream to Dirk--Lloyd never woke up around early morning unless someone grabbed him off the bed. It was like tradition and a daily routine for the 5 year-old child had found it hard to sleep at night since he was often distraught by the stars up in the dark night... they were appealing to the boy. He would often ramble on about them and the dwarf always listened intently, noticing some things he never had such as when Lloyd had explained that there was a particularly bright and large star in the middle of all the others. Odd, Dirk had never realized a star of such description; all the ones he had seen were small and almost dull in some angles. Ever since he was told this Dirk had gone outside to search for such star and did not see one like it. He was beginning to worry Lloyd was seeing things.

"Agh, that lad...," Shaking his head, Dirk went up the stairs to approach Lloyd, who was still sound asleep in his room.

The dwarf went up to Lloyd's bed and placed a rough hand on the child's shoulders in attempt to shake him awake. Strangely, although this tactic usually worked it didn't this time. Scowling, Dirk turned Lloyd flat on his bed who had been sleeping on his side up until that moment. Kneeling down onto the floor slightly, the dwarf adjusted the height level to whisper into the child's ears.

"Breakfast, Lloyd," He repeated from earlier, also mentioning what they were having, "because it's pretty late already, brunch is dried meat." Lloyd's eyes immediately flew open.

"Meat?!" He exclaimed, shooting up from his bed as he quickly began to dress after Dirk had turned away. As much as the boy liked to eat, he loved meat just as much.

------

After Lloyd had finished adorning himself with clothes in record speed, the two were seated across each other on a wooden table, The child's miniature one had been scrapped after Lloyd had long outgrown it during the past year. Thanks to eating healthy food and going to bed early constantly, Lloyd was a very tall child for his age for he would easily be able to look straight across in the eyes with a 7 year-old. However, unlike most overly tall children, Lloyd didn't look too scrawny as if he had been stretched into his current height. At seeing Lloyd growing bigger and bigger everyday, Dirk had secretly wished that dwarves could've grown taller than they usually were; vertically challenged.

"Tish ishm guuewd." Lloyd spoke with a stuffed mouth, causing Dirk to almost turn away to not see the devoured food in it.

"Lloyd," he started, "speak after you swallow." This was also a constant reminder...

However, the child, being not as bright as he was most of the time, merely nodded, "Moookay." Dirk held back a sigh.

As this had gone on constantly, Dirk had pressed himself about the matter of sending Lloyd to school. However, taking into account that Lloyd's mind was rather blank unlike most kids his age, he had decided to hold on that decision. Only a few weeks ago did Dirk decide to send Lloyd out to school in Iselia once he turned six years-old and was more mature than he was now. Dirk, however, did not feel a bit comfortable on sending the child to school for Lloyd had never been to Iselia or even leave the forest, for that matter. Dirk would be too busy to keep escorting Lloyd back and forth once that time came, so he truly did have reason to fret... after all, a chlid of six would be walking around a dangerous forest by himself, especially with the Iselia Ranch nearby and all. Not only that, Dirk had not consulted Lloyd of education yet...

"Lloyd," Dirk started, catching the boy's attention quickly, "how do you feel about being educated?"

Said child cocked his head to the side, "Edd... yu... ka... shion?"

The dwarf let out a chuckle, "No, no," he repeated it slowly, "education."

"Edu... cation..." Lloyd tipped his head again, "What's that?"

"Well... I'm planning you sending you to a place where you can be educated. You'll get smart that way, Lloyd."

"So... I'm going to education?" The boy's big eyes were looking into Dirk's, unsure of exactly what his father was talking about.

Dirk nearly fell out of his chair from, well... such stupidity as one would put it although it was reasonable considering Lloyd was still only a young child who had merely been living with someone isolated. And besides, that someone happened to be not too well-educated. Dirk was reasonably knowledgeable, but not too intelligent like the teacher at Iselia's school.

The dwarf had met the teacher once, and noticed that Dirk had found the professor's presence rather uncomfortable. He was always giving off a rude glare at everyone including the children and seemed to demand respect from everyone. It didn't help the fact that he was one of the only ones capable of teaching properly, so the others were stuck with him as the teacher... This was one reason Dirk had decided to hold Lloyd back until the latest he was able; he had hoped that during those years, another professor--a much more decent and dignified one--would take over and do a certainly better job. The current one would simply make Lloyd irritated to the point he'd most likely not want to go back to school after the first day.

"No, Lloyd," Dirk held back a sigh, "School. That's where you learn education. Education is...," he paused to think for a moment, "how smart you can get depending on how much of it you get."

Lloyd brushed the conversation away, "Oh, okay." He didn't really seem to get it... at least it wasn't time for him yet, in a way.

Before anything else was able to be said, Dirk had noticed that Lloyd's plate had been all cleaned out. He was still awed at how the child was able to shove everything into his mouth without choking, especially if they were big chunks of meat. He was just... "unique", it seemed. And although he ate even more than Noishe, an animal, his metabolism always worked extremely well, something dwarves weren't exactly blessed with.

And speaking of Noishe... the dog had recovered from the injury it had sustained in the past. Of course, Dirk wasn't sure whether Noishe was a dog or not, but that was the closest he was able to predict him to be. Noishe, unlike Lloyd, had taken much longer to warm up to the dwarf no matter what he had done. Not only that, he seemed even to be terrified of any kind of monsters and such; a rabbit monster had even scared him, for Goddess's sake! As such, Noishe was always confined voluntarily to the stables where he was fed and slept with comfort. The dog rarely came out of his den, even if it was a good weather and nice.

Dirk was snapped back into reality as Lloyd began to nag about something the dwarf somewhat disapproved, "Can I ride Noishe today?"

His answer was simple, "No."

"Why not?" Lloyd had furrowed his brows slightly, trying to make out an infuriated expression.

"It's still too dangerous for you to be riding Noishe all by yourself out in the wilderness," Sadly, Dirk knew that safety was something Lloyd didn't ponder too much on about.

"I won't fall off of him!" Lloyd exclaimed, hoping that those mere words would convince his father that he was already a man and capable of doing things that normal children his age wouldn't be able to. Dirk knew better than that, however.

"No. Until you start learning how to defend yourself from the monsters in the forest, I won't allow it."

The boy began to shift uncomfortably in his chair and then finally decided to jump off and go up the stairs, "Fine, fine. Okay, I'll stay and watch the stars..." Dirk had felt rather down after hearing such a depressing tone from the child, but it had been necessary. Lloyd needed to learn to value his life furthermore, he had noted.

------

Dirk had simply been sitting beside Noishe in the stable, unsure of how to approach Lloyd. The child had locked the door to his room to start throwing a fit by himself. It seemed that no matter what the circumstances, Lloyd had always made sure to keep his pride intact. Noishe also seemed to be completely ignoring Dirk as the dog paced back and forth in the stable, almost as if he was impatiently waiting for the dwarf to leave.

It was _not_ a good day for Dirk. It was already night, and he couldn't even apologize to his own son whose naivete seemed to surpass any other children of his age. Sighing, Dirk lightly dug a foot into the ground to free some stress, only to frighten Noishe away deeper in the corner of his stable. Shaking his head, the dwarf got up from the spot he had been sitting in the stable and left to finally consult Lloyd first handedly.

_... I'll be needing to teach Lloyd self-defense sooner than I thought._

------

When the dwarf had knocked on the boy's door lightly, no reply came. He knocked louder this time, and still nothing came to greet him. Silently sighing, Dirk attempted to turn the knob to discover that Lloyd had unlocked it some time ago. Dirk slowly opened the door just in case Lloyd had fallen asleep (he had made the boy unlock his door whenever he was about to sleep so that Dirk could wake him up in the next morning and such), only to peek out and see that the boy's bed had still been untouched. In alarm and panick, the dwarf almost threw down the door as he stepped towards the middle of the room to see that Lloyd had not been kidnapped or anything of the sort; the boy was staring out into the night where the stars were shining brightly.

"Lloyd," Dirk called out, earning the boy's attention.

"Oh, Dad! Come check this out!" He began to point wildly at the sky, unable to control his excitement over something Dirk had no idea of. And apparently, he had forgotten all about the issues of not being able to ride Noishe... it was like him, considering he was still a forgetful child and all.

Nonetheless, the dwarf obliged and stepped into the balcony where Lloyd had been leaning onto the railing. When Dirk stopped at Lloyd's left side and looked at him waiting for furthermore instructions, the boy began to point to a spot in the darkness again.

"There." He said proudly, a huge grin plastered on his face.

Dirk looked at the spot Lloyd had pointed at. After blinking several times, the dwarf realized that there was nothing in the dark sky where the boy had pointed at. Maybe Lloyd truly was hallucinating... Dirk began to grow concerned again.

However, when the elder of the two males turned to look down at the lad, Lloyd simply shook his head and continued to point on, "Keep looking. It'll appear around... now!"

Just as the boy said this, the spot Lloyd had pointed at began to glow and a huge star became visible. Well, at least, it was bigger than all the other stars in the sky that Dirk recognized. Although, the dwarf was unfamiliar with this particular one Lloyd had pointed out. He had never seen it... Perhaps this was the star Lloyd had kept on mentioning as the days had passed...

Lloyd spoke almost as if he had read Dirk's mind which scared the wits out of the dwarf, "That's the star I was telling you about! Doesn't it look great?"

Dirk only nodded, astonished. The star glowed with a ray that showered Lloyd and his cheeks, giving them a source of light. It was appealing, and calmed the dwarf, helping him relax. Odd, he had never felt such a thing coming from a mere star that just happened to be bigger than the rest... But then again, this star had never appeared until Lloyd had mentioned it three years ago-...

_Oh_. Three years ago... When Anna had died...

Dirk quickly turned to Lloyd and motioned to the bed, "Time to sleep, Lloyd. It's late."

Lloyd groaned, not wanting to sleep just yet, but soon did as he was told. Snuggled up in the warm sheets, the child fell asleep quickly. As that was occuring, Dirk was about to leave the room when he looked back up at the star that had recently appeared three years ago after Anna's death.

"Watch over Lloyd tonight for me, Anna." He whispered, gently closing the door as Lloyd slept on, unaware of the words the dwarf had spoken...

* * *

AN: Oh my goodness, this was a corny ending for age 5. Aw well, I ran out of ids considering really young characters around this age are sort of hard to make stories out of. I actually updated this chapter a day earlier than it was normally supposed to be published but judging from what I'll be doing tomorrow and such, I think I won't be able to. But chapter 3 will still be up in two weeks as if it had been updated tomorrow--Wednesday. You can check my profile to see the time the next chapter is due. Other than that, review if you have any comments (this doesn't include flames!) and adios! 


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